[hsmultimedia]

Lately a dialog box has been popping up on my screen urging me to connect to "performanceoptimizer" because of "problems with my pc".
Knowing that nobody would call my Mac a pc, I knew that something was not right. Since the dialog box cannot be removed but replaces itself with another dialog box with basically the same message, I've force-quit Safari, when it happened.
I understand from googling "performanceoptimizer" that this is so-called malware. I see posts about "removing performanceoptimizer" -- but they seem to refer to pc's --and I'm getting a little paranoid, fearing that these links will take me to even more vicious websites.
So I turn to this trusted site! Has anybody got experience with performanceoptimizer -- and what should I do?
My Mac: 2.1 GHz G5 iMac 2.5 GB ram

[drmbb]

So, if I understand you, this is some banner ad popping up when you go to some web sites? If so, just ignore it - it's a default web script that pops up for any browser to hit the site. It doesn't make any difference whether you surrfed there in a browser in OS X, or from IRIX on an SGI - it's just a dumb and blind popup ad hoping you will click on it, and that you are on a Windows machine so it can either sell you something or download/install something obnoxious.
I see these "your machine may be infected" kind of idiotic ads from time to time - makes no difference what type of machine or OS. They are playing the odds that your running a winbox, and are dumb enough to believe their FUD.

[hsmultimedia]

Actually it's not a banner. It's a dialog box -- that looks like a regular osx dialog box (at least that's what it looks like) that appears at the center of the screen.

[drmbb]

I know - like this site. The script does tailor it's appearance depending on the browser it detects you ar using. it will look like an OS X dialgoue in Safari, like a Mozilla drop-down dialogue in FireFox, and so forth. it's still just a dumb and blind script running from the web site.
P.S. the link will take you to a similar thing at scanner.malware-scan.com - clink on the popup link and it takes you to their web site - you'll notice they offer services that only apply to a Windows box - again, they are just playing a stupid obnoxious spam-type advertising, playing on the hope that you are a windows user and will follow through - that they've "scared" you with their apparent uber ability to remotely detect problems on you pc. The only pseudo-clever thing (and it's really not) is trying to tailor the "look" of the popup to suit the presumed OS as inferred from the browser. Of ocurse that ony works for Safari versus IE.
P.P.S. most such sites do install a cookie, so you may have that causing the repeated popups.

[Walt_Basil]

What kind of sites are these that are bringing you these dialogs? I browse all day and all night long and never get those. I have some friends who, on occasion, get these dialogs, but they always result from them trying to get "free" (i.e. illegal) music, software, movies, and porn. My brother will get them from gaming sites. Where they share cheat codes and the like.
Sticking to legitimate sites (news, banking, search, trusted friends) is the safest route, and one I implement on all my PCs. I block all myspace and the like (as that always set off Spyware Doctor like crazy), gaming sites except the two big legitmate ones. I use a white list for allowed gaming sites. Much easier than trying to identify all the bad ones. Along with a white list of allowed times, I pretty much keep the network clean.
After all, you really can't complain when you get it from warez site right? They know that and fill their code will all kinds of non-goodness.

[drmbb]

I'll get them from gaming sites (even GameSpot has them sometimes) and all sorts of places, and it has nothing to do with me trying to get anything, they just come up when you hit the web site. While I would not call them common, they are also not what I would call extremly rare either. I just close the dialogues and ignore them. They are just an obnoxious ways to advertise, playing on peoples' (read, Windows users) paranoia and ignorance about computer security.
/forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif I surf where ever my whims take me and place no restrictions on either my personal nor my own work machines - I don't worry about these kinds of ads, I just ignore them.
I've been web surfing since NetScape beta days ('94, if I remember right), never had a virus or infection of any kind, on neither my Apple machines nor my Windows boxes, and I've never placed inherent site restrictions of any kind on my machines (at home, along with my powerbook, I have an Athlon X2 box running Vista - no problems with it and I ignore these ads on it too, as I know it's clean and appropriately secured).

[hsmultimedia]

Hi Michael thanks for your advice! And to you too, Walt. I love your suggestion that I stop surfing and stick to paddling next to the seashore...

[Walt_Basil]

Or better yet... walk up on the shore and get your feet wet. ;-)

[mdawson]

The type of pop-up to which you are referring is, as drmbb stated, relatively common and I have seen such pop-up dialogs from as far back as the late 1990s when I first started using the Web regularly to keep abreast of tech news and was a member of the MacCentral forums before they were folded into Macworlds site; MacCentral was Macworlds up-to-the-minute news site back in the day. I ignored such pop-ups back then, as I knew that such monitoring of my system from a random site was infeasible then just as it is now; it would take several minutes to hours for an over-the-Web scan of any given computer to occur.
As drmbb stated, these ads target Window users although there is nothing to prevent the script from running on a Mac and thus allowing the pop-up to be seen in OS X. Even with pop-up blockers activated in Firefox, these blind scripts seem to still work, but in my experience such pop-ups often wind up behind my primary Firefox window and go unnoticed until I inadvertently close my Firefox window, as opposed to quitting, or have a second browser window open and notice additional windows listed in the list of open documents when switching between browser windows. More often than not, I find these types of things turn up when I am looking up information on more pop culture oriented material and need to go to less professional Websites to eek out bits and pieces of a story (e.g., trying to find information on minor celebrities).
With the existence of as Mac-centric Trojan in the wild (OSX.RSPlug.A), many people, particularly us Americans, will jump on the fear response and swing the pendulum in the complete opposite direction instead of applying any kind of rationale; hence the f/forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gifd up state of affairs in domestic and foreign policy in the US over the past 6+ years. Simply put, until malware can sneak its way onto Macs indiscriminately without requiring the interaction, and therefore knowledge and consent, of the user and attacks become commonplace, your Mac is safe as long as you do not do something stupid. The articles about how to avoid acquiring OSX.RSPlug.A, have been nothing more than an exercise in citing the need to apply common sense to what we decide to download from the Web and install on our computers. Trojan horses rely on navet, if not outright idiocy, on the part of the user and no operating system is safe from the antics of Johnny Thumbfingers.
The pop-up dialog boxes you are seeing are a minor nuisance and should be ignored.

[kinderman]

This performanceoptimizer window is a bigger issue for me in that it takes over my entire browser. The only options I have is to click and connect to their website or to totally logout. I cannot connect to any other sites without this process repeating. It doesn't matter whether I'm using Firefox or Safari. Anyone have a suggestion?

[Tom_Diola]

Safari has a popup blocker

[drmbb]

Popup blockers do nothing for this kind of thing usually. Most of these are java based, sometime flash based.
Kinderman - you can try disabling java and java script in your browser.